"Bureaucratic procedures should not get..."

From a number of previous visits we know that UCH continues to offer the highest standards of care in the disciplines(mainly orthopaedics) my wife has had occasion to use.

What could be improved

However, we have recently noted a significant increase in bureaucracy and we are very afraid this gets in the way of patient care and satisfactory outcomes.My wfe is an in-patient at the moment and I give two concrete examples of her current experience to demonstrate this. She has a problem with her weight and sde has had to wait months for an outpatient appointment. to see a dietician. On the day of the appointment the dietician refused either to see her in clinic or to come up to the ward because she was now an in-patient and thus someone else's responsibility.Who says 'Spanish practices ' are dead ? More importantly , perhaps has been the problem of how to deal with patients with problems coming under more than one discipline. My wife was admitted with recurring orthopaedic issues and a severe chest infection/pneumonia. She was under the impression she would be treated by orthopaedic and respiratory doctors from the start. Indeed, at the start all the preparations were made for treating the pneumonia. However come the week her regular orthopaedic team took over her care and someone in their wisdom decided she was an orthopaedic patient and would need to be referred by the team to the respiratory doc tors. The crux of the problem is that nobody told my wife that, or her nurses or, we suspect, the team themselves. The net result of this is that as I write, five days after admission my wife has yet to see a respiratory doc tor although I understand efforts are now being made to remedy this. This, I would suggest, is a serious failure of procedure ( I emphasise not of care ). Indeed, my wife may be worse off than when admitted as far as her pneumonia is concerned since she was taken off a previously ineffective antibioltic and has not yet been given anything to replace it.

Responses

Thank you for your kind comments and for taking the time to pass on your wife's experiences as an inpatient. I'm sorry there has been inconsistency with her care and I would urge you to contact our Patient Advice and Liaison Service (PALS) on 020 7380 9975 or PALS@uclh.nhs.uk to discuss.